Students return to school today

by Celia Shortt

After being closed on Monday and Tuesday because of severe weather in Coweta County, all Coweta County schools reopen today.

“All Coweta County schools will be open for normal operations,” said Coweta Schools Public Information Officer Dean Jackson in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the National Weather Service’s Atlanta office in Peachtree City, the temperatures in metro Atlanta on Tuesday were lowest on record since February 1996. Early Tuesday, it was 6 degrees at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and 6 degrees in Peachtree City. In Newnan, unofficial temperatures as low as 5 degrees were reported.

On Sunday evening, Coweta County School System officials closed school for Monday and Tuesday because the forecasted temperatures and conditions posed a threat to student safety.

“When the superintendent announced closures on Sunday, there was an additional risk of ice or other driving hazards on Monday morning, and this morning’s (Tuesday’s) extreme cold was also expected to pose a difficulty for operation of our system’s diesel buses,” said Jackson. “Most other Georgia school systems in our area and north closed both days as well, for the same reasons.”

Even with school being closed across the county, workers monitored school facilities and equipment to ensure efficient and safe use once school was back in session. Additionally, the two canceled days of school will most likely not have to be made up.

“School systems have four days out of the 180-day school calendar that can be canceled for emergency purposes,” said Jackson. “Because Coweta Schools have not reduced the 180-day student calendar, our system has access to those four days.

Barring future emergency closures because of weather conditions beyond those allotted days, we will not have to make up the two days missed on Monday and Tuesday.” With the severe weather conditions on Monday and Tuesday, there were citizens around Coweta who experienced some difficulties.

Director of Coweta County Emergency Management Jay Jones reported there were numerous reports of residential and commercial pipes bursting. He also reported the Coweta County Road Department was dispatched to an icy patch of road on Wagers Mill Road near Georgia Hwy. 16 West.